Ebola Drug Maker Shares Are Exploding Higher Again

WHO/Tarik Jasarevic/Handout via ReutersVolunteers prepare to remove the bodies of people who were suspected of contracting Ebola and died in the community in the village of Pendebu, north of Kenema, Sierra Leone, July 18, 2014.

The Ebola trade is still intact.

Shares of Tekmira Pharmaceuticals were up another 20% on Monday after gaining more than 45% on Friday after the FDA loosened a hold on the Ebola treatment in the company’s development pipeline.

After closing on Thursday afternoon at $US14.27 per share, Tekmira shares were trading north of $US25 on Monday.

In Thursday evening’s press release, Tekmira said, “the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has verbally confirmed they have modified the full clinical hold placed on the TKM-Ebola Investigational New Drug Application (IND) to a partial clinical hold. This action enables the potential use of TKM-Ebola in individuals infected with Ebola virus.”

Over the weekend, a report from The New York Times said that health officials in Nigeria have confirmed 10 cases and two deaths from Ebola. Nigeria is the continent’s most populous country. Total deaths related to Ebola have now totaled more than 900.

The New York Times’ editorial board also addressed the Ebola epidemic this weekend. The board wrote that after WHO director general Margaret Chan called this outbreak, “the largest, most severe, most complex outbreak” of the virus in its 40-year history: “And what has the world done in those 40 years to defend against the disease? Not much. Apart from inflicting a staggering human toll, the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa has laid bare how unprepared the United States and other advanced countries are to protect and treat thousands of Africans whose lives are threatened by an extremely dangerous virus for which there is no cure.”